A number of people have been asking me what the training theme for 2013 will be. The most recent thing I've heard so far is that the theme will be Ken (as opposed to katana or tachi). Ken is the straight, double-edged sword of Chinese origin, also referred to as 'Chokuto' in Chinese.

Soke is notorious for changing things up at the last minute, though, so it remains to be seen whether this is really what he'll end up going with, or to what extent.

Hi, The most commonly used Ken (also called "Tsurugi", using the on-yomi method of reading the kanji) being used a Hombu so far this year is a wooden replica (99cm long x 4.5cm wide) being manufactured by Yoshiyuki Tanaka. A lot of people are buying them from him - he sells them for 3,000 yen. Shiraishi Sensei is offering to take those and apply a thin aluminum coating for 2,000 yen, which gives it a nice shiny surface. Not sure the weight, but they're very light.

Soke has been emphasizing the fact that the Tsurugi predates the tachi (which predates the katana), and is a weapon that was used by royalty / nobility. (While the Tachi was a weapon used by bushi, military leaders, and the Katana was a weapon used by samurai, of the regular foot-soldier class, the lowest class.) Soke is saying that we should remember this and carry ourselves (in all senses of the word) as high-class people. There's been a lot of emphasis on footwork as a basis, and on manipulating the handle of the Tsurugi with the thumb and fingers to support it from different angles as it moves around. There are also some important differences from the tachi and ken, as the Tsurugi is two-sided and so you can't support the blade from the back side with the body or the hands like you can with the other two types of sword.

The Tsurugi is generally used with one hand, and you have to take care not to cut yourself with the what would normally be the back side of the blade. There are a lot of cases where the Tsurugi is thrust between the opponents arm and torso, cutting both at the same time and using the principle of leverage to manipulate the opponent's upper body. Just a few observations. :)